empty boundaries - the garden of flames
by Xnasha Minstrel
Summary: [April, 1995. I met her.] One snowy evening, Hibari Kyouya meets Sawada Tsunayoshi and is fascinated. Meanwhile, peaceful Namimori has fallen victim to a serial killer's spell, and with every new clue that comes to light, it appears that the girl in kimono may be more deeply intertwined into this bloody mystery than anyone else. Fem!Tsuna, 1827.
1. Daily Life: A Study in Murder I

**Daily Life: A Study in Murder Part I (…and nothing heart)**

* * *

 ** _April, 1995._**

 ** _I met her._**

* * *

There was someone on the roof, and it wasn't him.

Hibari Kyouya felt the urge to snarl; his sanctuary at the heart of his territory was being invaded, most likely trespassed upon by a herbivore that he would tear from limb to limb once he got up there and—

There was a flash of bright daylight as he threw the door open, and for a moment his eyes were dazzled by the sight. As he blinked the whiteness faded from his vision.

There was a girl in a pink kimono standing with her back to him, looking at the blooming sakura trees in the middle distance. Her hair, such a light brunette that it could almost be called orange, swayed in the spring breeze.

She turned as the door opened, and Hibari could see her eyes, a brilliant amber that was empty as a void, bottomless, endless.

"It's you," was all he could say at that moment.

The girl tilted her head.

* * *

It was starting to snow in the sleepy town of Namimori.

There was downy white powder on everything, slowly covering the roads, and a chill crept into the silent streets; there wasn't a single other person awake, it seemed like.

All except for the dark-haired boy, still trudging along on his patrol route steadfastly. As the wind blew, he only pulled his gakuran slightly closer to his own body in response.

The road was starting to slope up the side of a hill, and just as he turned the corner his eye caught on a slight figure, standing at the top of the cliff, the blue of their obi popping out against the stark white of snow.

Hibari walked closer, and it was a girl, standing motionless and staring at the lights of the quiet town beneath them. Her wide, blank amber eyes didn't seem to even blink as she continued looking at the falling snowflakes.

Despite himself, despite his usual insistence that herbivores were beneath his notice, the boy called out to the girl. He just couldn't stop himself, despite his usual ironbound control.

"Oi," was all he said.

Ever so slowly, the girl turned. She saw him, her amber eyes as empty as the night sky overhead. The girl's face was too handsome to be called feminine, and yet too beautiful to be called masculine, and as Hibari watched, a slight smile ever so slowly crept across her pale lips.

* * *

Her blank eyes continued staring at him, her head still tilted.

"Who…are you?"

* * *

There was a social hierarchy in the small area of Namimori, and everyone who was anyone knew about it.

Inevitably, Hibari Kyouya was at the top of it for painfully obvious reasons, and he demonstrated them over and over with trails of groaning, unconscious bodies.

And then, there was Sawada Tsunayoshi, secretly nicknamed Yo-hime behind her back because of her cold yet regal demeanour and also largely because the grunts of the Disciplinary Committee probably have a shrine for her tucked away somewhere for being a moderating figure on their boss. It didn't seem quite right, to call someone like that by such a boyish name like Tsunayoshi, so Yo-hime they dubbed her and Yo-hime she was, especially to the Disciplinary Committee.

No one was quite sure where on the pyramid she was since she kept to herself so much, but there was always a whisper on the back of everyone's minds, telling them that _no no no don't go near her she's dangerous_ that just could not be ignored. So they left her alone, that strange girl always dressed in a kimono. But even if their instincts hadn't essentially shouted that the girl was dangerous they still would have stayed far away for the simple reason that _Hibari_ was interested in her. He even let her onto the roof every day, and some of the nosiest and most eagle-eyed students could see them eating together peacefully.

It was inexplicable. Most improbable. But…

To anyone outside looking in, it looked like Hibari Kyouya had made a _friend_.

* * *

Namimori was a quiet, peaceful town. On it's surface, it was clean and bright with light.

But whenever there was bright light, the shadows only grew deeper and deeper.

For example: on this night, a young girl in a kimono was walking along a narrow alleyway. She did not seem to care that it was pouring out and that her clothes were getting wet. She did not care when she continued walking ahead and the gutters ran red with blood, her wooden zori staining with crimson.

Soon she came upon what was probably once a human being, now only mangled flesh, and trembled. She shook not in fear, but in excitement. With a single finger, she smeared crimson across her pale lips, and smiled.

In the far-off light of a single streetlamp, you could almost glimpse the stark white of a bandage on her arm.

* * *

Kusakabe was…concerned. Yes, perhaps that was the right word. Concerned.

His family had followed the Hibari for generations, and their service was long and valued. He too, would be the one to follow in the venerable tradition, as his father had and his father before him. As such, Hibari Kyouya's well-being was very high up on his list of priorities. In fact, you could say it was his mission in life.

Therefore, the rumours floating around weren't exactly good for his peace of mind, but Hibari Kyouya was a very hard man to talk to when he didn't want to talk and most of the time he did _not_ want to talk. So being perhaps the person who knows him the best in the world, Kusakabe waited until he was into his second pot of tea before he broached the dreaded subject.

"Hibari-san," he said. "Are you really sure about associating with that girl?"

 _Be direct. Do not mince words. Directness is key._

Hibari paused, for just a moment, before finishing the last sip on green tea in his cup.

"Hn."

Kusakabe, being well-versed in Hibari-speak, knew this was as good as a whole dissertation on how he would do he wished and could only sigh internally. "Very well, Hibari-san."

He only looked at Kusakabe in response, dark eyes cutting. "The dismemberment murder case?"

"Yes. From the files obtained from Masahiro-san, it seems that the serial killer is only getting more active as time goes on. There has been some new leads since the last incident." Kusakabe passed the thick manila folder to Hibari, grimacing slightly at the memory of the gruesome photos it contained; Hibari just flipped it open and didn't even blink an eye at the bloody scenes.

Unbeknownst to the both of them, fate has started to move.

"A Namimori Middle school emblem, and a wound on the arm…" Hibari frowned, and snapped the folder shut.

* * *

The sound of clashing swords in the morning light echoed in the small dojo.

(Sawada Iemitsu never really asked why his wife had wanted one built in the first place, but since his dear Nana had begged so hard and earnestly for it he gave the go-ahead without a single thought.

"I miss kendo from my own high-school days, anata," she had said, smiling in that especially charming way of hers. "It would do me good to feel young again, and little Tsuna could learn it as well! You could never go amiss with a bit of self-defence." Iemitsu had laughed and tried not to think about assassinations.)

But the end result was that there was a kendo dojo in the Sawada mansion, and that morning two figures in gi and hakama were sparring with live steel. With a clang, the younger figure was knocked backwards, unbalanced. She fell to her feet with a muffled thump.

"Ara, you've gotten better," NANA said, smiling. "But keep your strength moderated, and in the right place, or you shall be unbalanced."

"Yes, papa."

"Ah…have you prepared for breakfast yet? And have you told the boy about yourself yet? Since you are so taken with him." Her mother suddenly reached up and pulled off the tie keeping her medium-length hair from her face, signalling the return of Nana. Tsuna sighed and nodded.

"Yes, mom. And…and I will tell him. Eventually. TSUNA invited him out this Saturday apparently, and he has little reason to do that besides to tell him the truth."

"Tsuna-chan, I understand why you would want to tell him, but I would also understand if you never told him. After all, your papa and I never told your dad about NANA." Nana sighed.

Tsuna left her mother to her musings and went to her bathroom, staring for a long moment at the mirror. She looked long and hard at her own face, too strong-lined to be called feminine, and yet too thin-boned to be called masculine, and wondered how she was going to tell essentially the only person she is remotely close to about herself.

About _both_ of them.

* * *

The other shoppers looked nervously at Hibari, who was steadily getting more impatient as he stared at the large clock on the wall ticking away the minutes. The omnivore…was late. _Very_ late.

She would pay for this. He would make _sure_ of that.

" _Heyyy!_ " Someone tackled him from the side, clinging to his arm.

He stared at the girl who had crashed into him and taken his arm hostage, taking in her dancing amber eyes, cheerful smile, and bouncing gait. She was everything he knew about the omnivore had flipped on its head, so the obvious conclusion was… "You are not the omnivore. You are not Sawada Tsunayoshi."

"Got it in one! But I'm still Tsuna. As much as _she_ is. I'm just not the one you know." She smiled cheerfully even as she forcefully pulled him away. "Now come on! Since we're already, we may as well have some fun!"

"What—" But it was already too late; Not-Tsuna was already dragging him off into the shops, merrily clopping along.

(Hibari would deny it until the day he died, but deep down, it wasn't that bad, being dragged around by Not-Tsuna was…alright.)

Eventually, they both got a bit hungry, and naturally like other teenagers their age they went to McDonalds. Unlike the other teenagers, their topic of conversation was nothing _close_ to typical.

"Explain," was all Hibari said, even as Not-Tsuna enthusiastically dug into her burger. She dashed half the thing in one go, and then grinned at him.

"About?"

"You."

"What about me?" Not-Tsuna said mischievously.

Hibari growled. The other patrons all shuffled a little lower into their seats around them.

"Okay, okay, no need to get impatient." She took a large slurp of her coke, making it sound as loud as possible, before sighing. "Think of it like a split personality disorder. Except not really. Tsuna and I were not originally one person split into two; we were two separate beings in one from the beginning. There's the Tsuna you know, the every-day personality, the female Tsuna, the Yin. And then there's me, the repressed thoughts, the male, the Yang. Since the beginning, it has always been just the two of us, just me and her, TSUNA and Tsuna against the world."

Tsuna (No, not Tsuna, Hibari realized; _TSUNA_ ) tilted his head and watched him with a little grin on his face. "You then suddenly appeared into our world, and now Tsuna is doing something strange. She's in denial."

Hibari tilted his head, his dark eyes not leaving TSUNA for a single second. TSUNA laughed a little."You have no idea how that's strange, do you? Well, here's the thing—Tsuna is meant only to affirm; while my purpose is to deny. So what is she doing, trying to deny our feelings?"

Hibari, being _Hibari_ , had no answer for him, but it didn't seem like he required one. TSUNA cheerfully finished off his food, and with his own unstoppable momentum pulled Hibari out for yet another hour of shopping.

By the time they finished, TSUNA had a brand new, striking red coat thrown over her yellow kimono; it should have looked out of place, but it worked, somehow. Hibari was ready to snap when TSUNA somehow sneaked inside his guard and just brushed his lips against his cheek.

"I like you, so I'll be seeing you again really soon." He smiled and skipped ahead into the throng of afternoon shoppers before Hibari could even begin to try and stop him; by the time the crowd cleared, TSUNA was already gone.

* * *

"Hibari-san, this really can't go on. Something must be done." Kusakabe slammed down the case file on the dismemberment case, which had grown even more since he last saw it; there must have been more victims. "But there is good news. There has been an eyewitness."

Hibari grunted before grunting and reaching out for the file himself. His right-hand man's next words froze the blood in his veins.

"They say they saw a girl in a kimono."

* * *

"Hey, have you ever wanted to kill someone?"

Hibari looked up. "Omnivore," he said, "I beat herbivores half to death every three days."

TSUNA shook his head. "That's just beating them up, and a bit of fighting intent. Have you ever murdered someone?"

"No. And for the order of Namimori, I discourage it _greatly_." Hibari frowned at him, while TSUNA only looked back, face unreadable.

"Well, I have. It's the only thing I know." He got up from his seat on the desk and walked beside him. "Ever since I was born, I only knew murder. I murdered myself, over and over. I am the repressed thoughts of Sawada Tsunayoshi, and I cannot possibly exist outside, so my true purpose is to kill both myself, and anything that wakes me up. And, Hibari-san," he turned to look at him, his figure framed in the light of the setting sun through the classroom window, "I want to come out a lot, when I'm with you."

"Don't see me or look for me again, Hibari-san. Because if you do…I might just…"

By the time Hibari looked back, he was gone.

* * *

The omnivore was _avoiding_ him.

One did not simply ignore _Hibari Kyouya._

But the omnivore knew his habits, and was _really_ sneaky when she wanted to be, so even though they were in the same homeroom she somehow gave him the slip every single day.

And that is why Hibari Kyouya was currently hiding in the bamboo grove outside of the Sawada estate, glaring at the door like if he stared at it hard enough it would open for him.

"You're not being very subtle, Hibari-san." Tsuna's calm voice came from underneath him, and the prefect huffed before nimbly making his way down the tree.

"Subtlety is unneeded for a carnivore. Especially since omnivores like you give me the slip, so I shall just wait here every single day until you tell me what is going on." Hibari set his jaw mulishly; he could be one of the most stubborn people in the world.

Tsuna only sighed, and sounded like she was about to cry.

"Please…just…stay away from me." She backed away from him, her bandaged arm shielded by her other hand. "Don't come to see me, ever again."

Then, she was gone, and Hibari was staring at the bamboo trees uncomprehendingly for a moment, before he tightened his grip on his tonfa.

"When have I done as you wished?" He snarled, and deep in his heart resolved to at least _talk_ to her again.

* * *

That night, restless and unable to sleep, Hibari slipped out of his bed and made his way to the Sawada house in the pouring rain.

He made his way through the now familiar route through the bamboo trees, his surroundings made strange by the rain and darkness; he jerked his gakuran in annoyance as it snagged on a few branches.

It gave him just enough time to hear the scream echo in the confines of the grove; he took off sprinting, tearing through the trees, and saw—

Blood.

Blood pooling on the ground around a mangled body, something that once was a living human. And there—

Sawada Tsunayoshi stood there, clad in a striking red kimono. There was blood splattered on her face, and her pale lips slowly stretched into a wide, empty smile; in her hand, a sharp blade. Without any other warning, she was upon him, knife flashing in the dim light.

Grunting with the effort, he deflected the knife with his tonfa, and lashed out in successive counterstrikes, trying to knock the girl unconscious, but she was just a tad faster. With a sweep of her feet, Tsuna tripped him and immediately was right on top of Hibari, straddling his waist. He only snarled, baring his teeth savagely even as he tried to shift his weight underneath the girl to get her off. "I am not going to die here."

"…I want to…kill you." She said, her blade held to Hibari's throat.

Her eyes were blank in the rain, looking down at him—

And the next thing he knew was the sensation of her body sinuously jumping backwards—

 _"Who are you?!"_

 _"I see. You are not ready yet."_

 _Her wrist, slipping out of his grasp as she continued running._

 _Her red kimono in the light of the incoming car, he was still desperately running forwards, but it was too late, too late—_

Impact.

 ** _[You Turn Into Light - End of Childhood]_**

* * *

 **AN:** Don't look at me, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing.

And yes, this _is_ a DIRECT FUSION of Kara no Kyoukai - the garden of sinners into KHR!. Essentially, fem!Tsuna is Ryougi Shiki while Hibari is Kokutou. Weirdass shit about to go down.

Also, while you can expect KHR! characters to show up as crucial characters in the story, the KHR! storyline events will not happen, chronologically, until after KnK Movie 7, aka A Study in Murder Part II. Also known as, Reborn is gonna be as confused as all heck when that time comes.

Look, I was thinking all about this fic the entire time when I was in Spain, don't ask me why. I probably came up with this while jetlagged.


	2. Metamorphosis: The Hollow Shrine

**AN: I'm shit at action. I've given it my best shot though, so I'm hoping it works out well, although I'm mostly transcribing the original KnK fight anyway.**

 _ **Metamorphosis: The Hollow Shrine (garan-no-dou)**_

* * *

"Vitals?"

"JCS three digits. Blood pressure is 60 by palpation."

"Get a EKG hooked up, I want a transfusion line stat! Ms. Sawada, can you hear me? Ms. Sawada?"

* * *

 _There was…no end to it._

 _Just cold. And darkness._

 _A starless ocean at night…._

* * *

"Condition?"

"Blood pressure is low but everything else is stable."

"Cross-match, now! Intubation complete, let's get pre-op done. What massive bleeding…get me an extra unit of blood too."

"I'm cutting your kimono, Ms. Sawada."

"Trauma not just to the chest but to the head too. Get Dr. Nakamura in Neurosurgery…"

* * *

 _So this…this is death…_

 _There is nothing here. Nothing…_

 _Not even…_

 _「 Myself 」_

 _Ahhhh…_

* * *

"Excuse me, Ms. Sawada. Let's get to working on your legs now. You seem to be taking to physical conditioning very well too!"

"She is in remarkably good shape, for a patient six months into her coma…"

"Must be all that positive energy the city's resident guardian brings in with him, paradoxically."

* * *

"Wait, wait wait. Is that _the_ Hibari Kyouya?! The one that terrorizes the entire town into behaving?"

"Oh, right, you're new here…yeah, he comes in every week to visit that girl in Room 27, Sawada. He's like clockwork, always exactly on time, for two years. If it were anyone else, I would call it puppy-like devotion."

"Ah, what wouldn't I give to have a guy that devoted to me! Although maybe not him personally, but _my_ , Ms. Sawada is lucky."

 _"Herbivores."_

"A-ah, Hibari-san! We-we're done! We'll—we'll be going now!"

"Good. Crowding is prohibited."

Before the door swung closed, they both glanced back for an instant and saw the dark-haired prefect settling fresh flowers into the vase at the bedside table.

* * *

The first thing she saw when she first opened her eyes again was a vase of carnations.

They were quite ordinary, as flowers go—pale pink, petals flush with the colour; obviously someone has recently replaced them. There were still drops of water lingering on the stems.

She stared uncomprehendingly at them. Within a few seconds, bright flickering lines crossed the flowers and leaves, and their ominous red filled her with trepidation; with a single trembling finger she traced them, flinching when they seemed to spark with…something. Not energy. More like…. the absence thereof.

With a sort of morbid curiosity, she dug a single nail along the line.

Instantly, the pale pink went out of the flowers, the leaves spontaneously crumbled, and the stem shrivelled right before her disbelieving eyes.

 _No! I don't—! I don't want this—!_

In her panic, she lashed out with an arm, and the vase shattered on the floor.

The nurse, hearing the crash, quickly rushed back into the sight of brown dead petals flying everywhere in the wild breeze coming in from the window, and—

"Doctor! Doctor, come quick! Ms. Sawada, Ms. Sawada is—!"

* * *

"We had thought you would never wake up," the man said, elated. All around the plain hospital room nurses were smiling and bustling about, drawing open curtains, returning the room to accommodate the renewed condition of its patient.

But to her eyes, they were filled with nothing but lines, nothing but lines, and as she watched they were falling apart, hunks of flesh, dead—

With shaking hands, she put the heels of her hands to her eyes and _pushed_.

Before she fell unconscious, she remembered someone. Purple eyes, black hair, a brusque yet kind face, with even more abrasive behaviour. She knew him, knew the eyes, the hair, the face. Then…

 _Why…can't I remember his name…?_

* * *

The red-haired woman walked confidently, cutting across the crowd of doctors, nurses, and patients; despite the crowded lobby, all of them parted for her, as if unconsciously aware that she was not quite normal.

The woman quickly arrived at the door at the end of the hall on the third floor of the hospital. She grinned, and then opened the door.

"Hi! Wow, your skin sure is great for someone asleep for so long. Call me Touko."

The girl on the bed frowned, her eyes swaddled in bandages. "Who are you?"

"I'm the speech therapist the hospital called in to help you with your aphasia. That is, if you had aphasia in the first place." The woman said, her voice playful. "But my opinion, Ms. Sawada, is that you don't have aphasia at all in the first place. It's not good to just stop talking to your doctors. And your eyes..."

"You know nothing about me," Tsuna said, her voice cold. "Don't tell me what to do."

"Hm. It just seems a waste to want to get rid of a pair of perfectly good eyes."

Blindly, Tsuna reached for the string that would call for a nurse.

She flicked the cord out of Tsuna's hands. "Whew, that was a little close there! Might be a bit troublesome if you do that."

"You…you're not a doctor, are you?"

The woman smiled, cheerfully, infuriatingly. "That's right. By profession, I am a magus."

* * *

If one walked into the quaint little office named Garan-no-dou on that particular day, they would not have been very surprised—after all, if one found the office it was because they were looking for it—but they could be excused for doing a double take.

Hibari Kyouya, the most notorious high schooler in the city, had his documents laid out on the coffee table, and the boy was going through them at a stubborn pace as proprietor Touko fiddled with a disturbingly lifelike doll on her work table.

"What do you think, boy?" She called over as she adjusted the open kimono draped over the doll's shoulders, and Hibari glanced behind him with clear annoyance.

"It looks fine."

"You don't look convinced."

"I don't care."

The red-haired puppeteer pouted. "Well, you're no fun. No like how you were two years ago, grilling me for information about that other doll after busting through my anti-detection Bounded Fields with nothing but Flame and will."

"Less talk, carnivore. I am not paying you for useless gossip about the past. Either tell me about the omnivore or any other cases you should be working on," Hibari growled as he slammed down yet another stack of papers labelled _For DC Eyes Only_. Touko only gestured with the screwdriver in her hand, smile fading.

"The truth of the matter is that she's empty—but no matter how much she doesn't feel it, she is still Sawada Tsunayoshi. There's a giant hole inside her and she'll need to fill it, not just with memories—she'll have to reassemble an entirely new self. She's hollow, and no one can help her. She is vulnerable at this stage so I've taken some measures, and I think they'll be enough, but…" With practiced movements, Touko lit up a cigarette, blowing out a cloud of smoke.

"We'll see."

* * *

She laid in the hospital bed, and there was someone outside her door. Something that should not exist.

She couldn't bring herself to care, much.

 _TSUNA…where are you?_

 _You've left me alone, haven't you?_

 _It's cold…_

Vaguely, as if she wasn't in her own body entirely, she could feel someone strangling her. Killing her.

If she died…TSUNA would be there. But…

 _Death is so…dark, and hollow! It's so cold and lonely—_

"The last thing I want…" She coiled under the ghoul. "Is to fall in there again!"

With a twist of her legs she kicked the body on top of her away. Stumbling forward with the momentum, Tsuna leaned against the wall, tracking the thing by its moans and the sound of its movements, gaining distance by moving along the wall to the window.

 _It's rushing at me!_

"Don't hesitate!" With a yell, Tsuna grabbed the wildly fluttering curtains and feinted, somehow grabbing the ghoul by its neck instead. Together, they tumbled out of the third floor, and the girl slammed the corpse into the wet ground, bouncing away from the force of the impact. She twisted in the air, landing gracefully on all fours on the grass courtyard.

"Damn, that was nimble; I'm impressed. What are you, a cat?" Touko's voice came from behind Tsuna, and the scent of cigarette smoke met her nose. "I had barriers set up all around your room to keep out spiritual entities, but it looks like they got themselves a body and tore through them. They're not usually smart enough to do that; that was my mistake." The ghoul roared, rotting hands tearing at the chain link fence, and the flimsy lock on the gate gave way in around three seconds.

Tsuna scowled. "Then _you_ do something about it."

The magus laughed. "10-4. _Fehu uruz thurisaz_." With quick deft flicks of the cigarette in her hand, Touko sketched a glowing rune into the air; at the same moment, the lumbering corpse burst spontaneously into glowing flame. It paused for a moment, and then continued to move towards them, much to Touko's annoyance. "Tch. I guess _Ansuz_ was too weak."

Tsuna laughed bitterly. "Ha, you con artist."

"Oi, oi, this is kinda tricky. If he was alive then I could kill him by burning his heart out of him, but that's not going to cut it. He's dead, so he won't care if he loses an arm or a leg. The only way we can kill him is with cremation-type fire or get a priest to exorcise—"

"Stop making excuses. In other words, it's beyond your means."

"It's beyond yours too. You can't kill a corpse, it's already dead. Let's retreat for now." The magus took a few steps back, but Tsuna braced instead, ready to dash forward.

"It's a 'living' corpse, isn't it? Then if it lives, I _can_ kill it!" With a quick motion, the bandages around Tsuna's eyes unraveled, and she glared at the lumbering ghoul. As if sensing her renewed resolve, the body roared and stumbled with surprising speed towards both of them.

Tsuna flew towards the thing before it could even react, and slashed two fingers across the ghoul's neck; in her vision, her nails cut across a glowing red line even as it groaned in pain. She ignored the snap as she broke both bones and danced backwards, out of its reach.

"Tsuna!" Touko called, and the girl caught the knife the magus threw her with contemptible ease. Careful of her broken fingers, she flicked the sheath off before gathering her long hair in three fingers of her injured hand. "This is getting annoying!" she snarled, slashing at it. There was a moment of resistance before the razor sharp blade bit through Tsuna's hair, leaving it at jaw-length.

The corpse, in a single moment of impressive speed, lunged forward and grabbed Tsuna by her head; if it had any true intelligence, it would have let go immediately for the glare the girl directed at it.

"You lump of death, you have no place in front of me!" Not even a single second later the thing's hand was chopped into pieces, leaving the brunette's face splattered with rancid blood. Her expression showed no disgust, only cold determination.

The hunting knife went straight through the ghoul's neck, and with a single slash Tsuna severed the line glaring right across its dead pulse.

Suddenly, Tsuna was struck by coldness. Bone-chilling, arctic coldness.

But nothing, nothing at all could compare to the coldness of that void. Her grip on the knife tightened, and she moved the blade from her face to her chest. "I'll kill my weak self! I won't let you have her, I won't let you have Sawada Tsunayoshi!"

And stabbed down.

She was only aware afterwards of the screaming ghosts pouring out of her, and Touko running towards her.

Then, nothing.

* * *

"Shit!" Touko cursed as the girl in the kimono collapsed, already unconscious before she hit the ground. The magus checked her pulse and then sighed. "Just passed out, then."

She hooked an arm under Tsuna's legs and hoisted her up into a princess carry, careful of her broken fingers. Touko closed her eyes for a second and walked straight into the forest, towards a patch of bushes that started shaking as the person underneath panicked.

"You saw all that, didn't you," Touko said, looking down at the silver-haired teenager who was hiding under the bushes, staring up at her in awe and fear. The young man—a boy, really—froze in shock as she spoke. "Well, standard procedure. I'm not the best at hypnotization, but I'm fairly certain you won't lose any other memories…probably." The puppeteer shrugged.

"W-Wait! I…I don't want to lose my memories of this!" The boy yelled, eyes wide. "That girl…she…she saved me!"

"Saved you? She's been in a coma for two years, boy. When did she have the time to save you?"

"She did! She saved me, on that night…it's my fault she was in a coma in the first place. The least I could do was to watch over her." The boy hung his head in shame as Touko's eyebrows shot up.

"Boy," she said. Paused. "You better come back to my office with me. We'll work something out—you've been swept into something beyond what you expected."

* * *

She opened her eyes, and there he was. Purple eyes, black hair, a brusque yet kind face. She knew him, knew the eyes, the hair, the face.

She knew his name.

 _Aaaahhhh…I knew. I knew you were the only one who waited, the only one who protected me._

"A good day for you to get back on your feet, omnivore."

The wind through sheer curtains and the sight of pink carnations again. Tsuna closed her eyes.

 _So there is something that wouldn't disappear, after all._

 _ **[ARIA - Reunion]**_

* * *

 **AN:** **Sorry for this being so late, this chapter was on my hard drive for fucking ever, but I've been chipping away at it recently and I think this should be okay now.**

 **Not much change from KnK canon, but it is necessary for the introduction of Touko, the setup of events for the next chapter, and obligatory relationship development. We do get the sense that Hibari will be 5000000% more snarky and bitter at Touko than Mikiya will ever be, though. Also, it seems the story of that fateful night of the car accident has changed...**

 **Next chapter is _Prisoner's Arrival/Remaining Sense of Pain (ever cry, ever life)_. Please look forward to it.**


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